{"sf1_id":791829,"sf2_id":null,"title":"To Boldly Hoof It Ch 18. The Battle (part 3)","author":"BluebloodFan91","words":3644,"posted_at":"2014-12-04T20:00:00.000Z","tags":["Adventure","Blueblood","Celestia","Character Development","Clean","Destruction","Doctor Whooves","Equine","Fantasy","Flam","Flim","Friendship is magic","Griffin","Gryphon","Hoops","Horse","Humor","Iron Will","Jet Set","Lightning Dust","MLP","Mare","Minotaur","My Little Pony","Pegasus","Plot Development","Pony","Prince Blueblood","Princess Celestia","Rarity","Sci-Fi","Shining Armor","Stallion","Starswirl","Starswirl the Bearded","Story Progression","Story Series","Sunset shimmer","To Boldly Flee","Trixie","Unicorn","Upper Crust","alicorn","changeling","dumbbell","gilda","parody","score","space"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/791829-to-boldly-hoof-it-ch-18-the-battle-part-3","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/791829","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=791829\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"Ch 18. The Battle (part 3)\n\n\n\"Why is this taking so long?\" Rarity demanded in annoyance back on the bridge of the Ascendency.Their tactical officer shook his head in frustration. \"The Defiant is flying too close to our ship, and too fast! I can't target them!\" he responded to Rarity.Rarity stamped her hoof on the hard floor in irritation! \"THEN FIRE IN EVERY DIRECTION AT ONCE!\" she ordered.\"We can't,\" said the tactical officer plainly. \"The ship isn't designed to do that.\"Rarity growled loudly in anger as she tried to come up with something to solve this annoying problem.\"Can I make a suggestion?\" asked Shining Armor, still sounding annoyed at Rarity for taking command away from him.Unable to come up with anything herself, Rarity sighed and turned to him. \"Yes, Shining?\"\"Ram them with our ship,\" he said to her.Rarity thought for a few seconds, and then smiled at the idea. \"Ram them with our ship!\" she ordered aloud...................Trixie's eyes widened in horror as the Ascendency suddenly banked sharply in their direction. There was no way for them to have avoided getting hit.Their ship rocked and tumbled through space violently as they were hit hard by the shield bubble around the Ascendency.\nThey all screamed as they were hurled out of their seats onto the\nfloor. Sparks burst from the controls and red lights began flashing. A\nfew fires ignited in various spots on the bridge.Seeing\nthe flames, Trixie closed her eyes and lit up her horn with magic, and,\nin a flash of light, she conjured up a fire extinguisher in midair in\nfront of her. She levitated it over to the spots of the bridge that were\non fire and began putting out the flames with it.They all quickly hurried to get back up onto their hooves and get their ship back under control again.Trixie\nlooked around her at the smoke filled bridge as she sat back down in\nthe command chair. As the ship stopped it's tumbling and steadied out\nthanks to Dumbbell and Hoops working the helm controls, Trixie wondered\nhow badly they were damaged.She didn't have to wait long to find out.\"OUR\nSHIELDS ARE GONE!\" Sunset shouted fearfully while coughing a bit from\nthe smoke still lingering in the air. \"WE'RE COMPLETELY DEFENSELESS!\"Trixie hung her head in despair.Suddenly,\nFlim and Flam burst onto the bridge, coughing as well. \"Bad news,\neverypony!\" Flam said urgently. \"Our engines are blown and our power\ncore is damaged!\"\"He's right,\" said Dumbbell at the helm. \"The thrusters aren't working. We're sitting ducks!\"That was it. Trixie knew they had no choice now. Sorry, Gilda and Lightning Dust.\n\"Can we use the improbability drive to escape?\" she asked. She didn't\nwant to leave her friends behind, but with the situation as hopeless as\nit was, they didn't have any other choice.Flim and Flam shook their heads sadly. \"We don't have enough power left for that.\"And\nnow Trixie felt utterly helpless. That strategy of staying close to the\nenemy ship so that it couldn't hit them had been the best she could\nthink of, and it had failed. It was obvious they were all in way over\ntheir heads here. And now they couldn't even escape if they wanted to.\nTheir ship was crippled. This was it. They were done.On the viewscreen, they could see the Ascendency\nmoving away from their ship, and then turning around so that it was\nfacing them. They all gasped silently in terror when they saw the main\ncannon on the front of the Ascendency was beginning to glow with white light again, indicating the massive battle cruiser was about to fire another blast at them.\"What do we do?\" whimpered Upper Crust.\"There's nothing we can do,\" Entomala growled, apparently having begrudgingly accepted their fate. \"We're dead.\"No! Trixie thought to herself, standing up from her chair and facing the viewscreen defiantly. I, the great and powerful Trixie, refuse to go down this way!\nThe enemy ship was about to fire on them, and she knew if she didn't do\nsomething, they were dead. Squeezing her eyes shut tight and gritting\nher teeth, she began pumping magic into her horn, focusing only on\nprotecting the ship, herself, and her friends. Her horn ignited with a\nburst of violet magical energy.Everyone\nin the room turned to look at Trixie in surprise at what she was doing.\nHer body had begun to tremble as she concentrated as hard as she could.\nTrixie somehow found strength she never knew she had deep inside of her,\nand then her eyes flew open, and were glowing with bright white light. \"Is she going super saiyan?\" asked Hoops.On\nthe viewscreen, the Ascendency fired its powerful beam weapon at them,\nthe white blast soaring across the space between their ships straight\ntowards them.Trixie let out an angry\nscream, and then a powerful violet beam of magic shot out of her horn.\nThe beam passed through the walls of their ship, and created a huge\nshield bubble all the way around the entire Defiant.The blast from the Ascendency struck Trixie's shield spell, and on the bridge of the Defiant,\neveryone squinted their eyes from the blinding light on the viewscreen.\nWhen the light faded, they were overjoyed to see that the shield bubble\nTrixie had cast had actually held up to the attack.They all let out a cheer.However,\nthey could then see the bubble start to crack, and then it collapsed,\ndissipating into magic sparkles in space, and then into nothing. But\nthat didn't matter. Trixie had saved them!Trixie,\nhowever, failed to notice this as a wave of dizziness and exhaustion\novertook her just then. She wobbled on her legs, and then collapsed to\nthe floor. The spell had completely drained her. It had taken everything\nshe had had in her. Her world was spinning, and she wasn't entirely\nsure what was going on anymore. She wasn't even aware of all of her\nfriends on the bridge gathering around her in a panic and seeing if she\nwas okay.\"TRIXIE, ARE YOU ALRIGHT!\" Upper Crust asked.The\ndizziness started to where off and her vision came back into focus. She\nlooked around at all of her friends around her, kneeling over her with\nconcerned looks on their faces. \"W...what happened?\" she groaned.\"Trixie, that was amazing!\" Hoops said.\"You saved us!\" said Sunset. \"You cast that shield spell around the entire ship and protected us from the blast!\"\"You really are great and powerful!\" said Iron Will.Trixie\nsmiled up at them. \"Trixie... has been practicing,\" she said weakly. It\nwas true. She had been practicing spells, before they had gone on this\nadventure into space, including shield bubble spells. Ever since\nPrincess Luna had agreed to tutor her in magic, Trixie had really\nimproved, but she had never been able to cast a spell that powerful\nbefore on her own. Yet somehow, this time, knowing that she and her\nfriends were all in danger, she had found the strength.Just then, Entomala spoke up. \"Um... I'd hate to ruin the moment, but the Ascendency looks like its getting ready to fire again!\"They all looked at the viewscreen. To their dismay, the Ascendency was indeed getting back into position for another attack.Trixie frowned. \"Trixie is to exhausted from that last spell to cast another one!\" she groaned.\"Doesn't anyone have any bright ideas??\" asked Dumbbell in a panic.\"Sorry I'm late, everypony!\" a British male voice suddenly said over the intercom.Suddenly, something caught their attention on the viewscreen. Something was materializing in between their ship and the Ascendency. It was tiny, and it was blue, and it was box shaped.\"IT'S THE TARDIS!\" Flim shouted joyfully.Indeed,\nit was Doctor Whooves' trademark time machine, appearing directly ahead\nof their ship. They all felt an overwhelming sense of relief right\nthen.Suddenly, the image on the\nviewscreen changed to show the inside of the TARDIS's main control room.\nAnd standing center screen was the legendary Time Pony himself, Doctor\nWhooves.\"All right, everypony, now we've given them something else to shoot at,\" the Doctor said, a happy grin on his face.Suddenly\ntwo more creatures ran onto the screen beside the Doctor. A griffon and\na Pegasus mare they all recognized. \"Hey, guys!\" they both said.\"Gilda! Lightning Dust! You're okay!\" exclaimed Score happily.Suddenly Lightning Dust looked horrified and pointed at them. \"GUYS! THERE'S A CHANGELING THERE WITH YOU!\"They all looked at Entomala, who was rolling her eyes, and then back at Lightning Dust.\"It's okay, Lightning. She's with us,\" said Iron Will.Lightning Dust still looked at them in confusion. \"Iron Will? When did you get out here?\"\"Why\ndoes everypony keep asking me that?\" Iron Will said, shrugging his arms\ninto the air. \"I've been here the whole time! Don't you remember?\"On\nthe screen, Gilda turned to Lightning Dust and put a reassuring paw on\nthe pegasus mare's shoulder. \"It's a long story. I'll fill you in\nlater,\" she said to her.Lightning nodded and relaxed....................On the bridge of the Ascendency, Rarity watched as the TARDIS appeared on the viewscreen, settling in directly between their ship, and the Defiant.She smirked confidently. \"Ah. The game's afoot, eh?\" She pointed at the TARDIS with her hoof. \"FIRE!\"She\nwatched as a their ship sent a white energy blast at the TARDIS. The\nblast hit the TARDIS dead on, sending the small blue box spinning wildly\nthrough space.\"CRY 'HAVOC!', AND LET SLIP THE DIAMOND DOGS OF WAR!\" Rarity shouted out loudly with glee....................The TARDIS shook as it was hit by the Ascendency's blast. The Doctor, Gilda, and Lightning Dust all held onto the control console to keep from falling over.\"WOW! THAT'S SOME FIREPOWER!\" the Doctor exclaimed. Then he grinned at Gilda and Lightning Dust. \"But I've encountered better!\"\"You sure this... ship... can hold together against them?\" asked Gilda.\"Are\nyou kidding?\" the Doctor laughed. \"This old girl can stand up to Dalek\nattacks.\" He then began pressing buttons on the control panel. \"But\nfirst, I'm going to give them the chance to surrender.\"He pressed one last button, and then the elegant bridge of the Ascendency\nappeared on the TARDIS's viewscreen. A surprised looking Rarity was\nstanding front and center in the image, and behind her in the background\nwere dozens of crewponies at various computer stations, as well as\nShining Armor.The Doctor spoke. \"Ascendency, this is the Doctor. I'm giving you this one chance to surrender and stand down.\"Rarity\nburst out laughing. \"Surrender? Us? You must be joking! Our ship is way\nbigger and way more powerful then yours. You're the ones who should be\nsurrendering!\"\"Ah, see that's where\nyou're wrong, miss Rarity,\" the Doctor shot back. \"You forget who you're\ndealing with. I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Pony. I'm from the planet\nGallopfrey in the Constellation of Kasterborous. I am nine hundred and\nsix years old, and I'm the pony who is gonna take you, and your entire\nship, down, unless you surrender right now. Any questions?\"Rarity\nlooked back behind her at her tactical officer. \"Fire,\" she said\ncalmly, just as the transmission ended and the TARDIS's viewscreen\nswitched back to the view outside in space, showing the Ascendency charging it's main cannon, and then promptly firing it at them.The\nblast hit the TARDIS again. The control room of the TARDIS shook and\nGilda, Lightning Dust, and the Doctor once again held onto the control\nconsole to steady themselves.The Doctor\nshook his head. \"They never listen,\" he said in disappointment, then he\ninstantly became serious. \"Okay, I have a plan.\" He pressed a button on\nthe intercom for the Defiant. \"Doctor to Defiant! Be ready to fire when I give you the signal. We're gonna punch through their shields for you.\"He then began working the many controls on the control panel, and the TARDIS began flying right at the Ascendency...................\"What's he doing?\" Rarity thought to herself aloud as she watched the TARDIS on the viewscreen flying towards them.\"Lady, Rarity,\" said one of the crewponies. \"Our computers show the TARDIS is on a collision course for us.\"\"What?\" Rarity gaped in confusion. \"Is he insane?\"But Shining Armor was more worried, and his eyes widened in terror as he realized what the Doctor was doing.\"FIRE EVERYTHING!\" he shouted at the top of his lungs at his crew.But\nit was too late. The TARDIS made contact with Shining Armor's shield\nbubble, and the shield bubble instantly shattered against the TARDIS's\nmuch more powerful Time Pony forcefields, the pieces of the shield\nbubble dissipating into magic sparkles in space, and then fading into\nnothing.Then the TARDIS began to dematerialize, fading away into nothing before it could make contact with the actual hull of the Ascendency...................Back on the bridge of the Defiant,\nthe Doctor's voice suddenly came up on the intercom again. \"Doctor to\nDefiant. You're all clear! Now strike while you have the chance!\"Trixie, who was now back up on her hooves, looked over at Iron Will. \"Do we have any alchemy bombs left?\"\"Just one,\" he said.She looked back ahead of her at the now shieldless Ascendency. \"FIRE!!!\"Iron Will quickly leaped over to his tactical station and pressed the fire button for the Alchemy bomb launcher.On the viewscreen, they all watched as their last alchemy bomb soared out from beneath their ship, heading straight for the Ascendency...................On the Ascendency, everyone on the bridge all noticed the Defiant fire the alchemy bomb, and were now watching the bomb heading right towards them.Rarity turned to Shining Armor. \"SHINING, RECAST YOUR SPELL!!! QUICK!!!\" she screamed in a state of panic.\"THERE'S\nNOT ENOUGH TIME! ITS TOO LATE!\" Shining Armor shouted, grabbing Rarity\nwith his front hooves and pulling her backwards with him, away from the\nfront of the bridge.Less than a second later, they were both deafened by the ear popping sound of an explosion behind them.....................The alchemy bomb detonated on impact with the Ascendency, causing another blinding explosion of light. Everyone on the Defiant squinted their eyes as they watched the explosion on the viewscreen.When the light from the explosion faded, they could see the Ascendency\nwas now a burning wreck, it's hull now scorched and darkened from the\nexplosion. Smaller explosions riddled the ship's hull all over it,\nsending red-hot pieces of shrapnel hurling off of it into space.The Ascendency then began drifting through space, completely out of control. It was on a direct course for the Heart Star...................Princess\nCelestia smiled as she heard the loud hum of the spell amplifying array\npowering back up in the Heart Star's engineering bay after the\nmechanics and scientist ponies finally completed repairs well enough for\nit to work.\"Excellent!\" she said joyfully. She walked over to a computer consol and attempted to contact the Ascendency\nto let them know. She pressed the communications button. \"Shining\nArmor, this is Princess Celestia.\" She paused, waiting for a response,\nbut all she got was static. \"Shining Armor?\" she asked again several\nseconds later. \"Rarity? Anypony?\"Puzzled,\nPrincess Celestia suddenly became aware of the sound of screaming all\naround her. She looked up from the computer controls in front of her,\nand glanced around the area. She was confused when she saw all of the\nponies in the room screaming and running towards the exit door into the\ncorridor.Curious, she turned to look at\nwhat all the ponies were running from. Her ears fell flat against her\nhead, and her eyes widened in terror when she did. There was a large\nwindow against a wall on the far side of the area she was in, and\nthrough that window, she could see the Ascendency, scorched and heavily damaged, flying out of control right towards the part of the Heart Star she was currently in.As the rest of the ponies all ran for their lives, Celestia stoad there on the spot she was in, frozen in utter shock.\"...Oh,\nit's just as my fortune cookie predicted,\" she whimpered to herself,\njust as her horn began to glow with golden yellow light.....................On the bridge of the Defiant, they all watched as the Ascendency\ncrashed into the side of the Heart Star, smashing right through the\ngiant, heart shaped space station's outer hull, sending tons of debris\nhurtling out into space.They all let out a big sigh of relief. It was over. They had not only survived. They had actually won.They\nall heard a mechanical whining drone in the room, and then saw the\nTARDIS materialize on the bridge with them. The door opened, and The\nDoctor, Gilda, and Lightning Dust all walked out.Both Gilda and Lightning Dust's eyes widened when they looked at the viewscreen, and saw the aft section of the Ascendency sticking out of a giant smoldering hole in the Heart Star.\"Whoa! I guess I joined the right side in the end!\" Lightning Dust said to Gilda with a grin.The\nDoctor glanced around at their house ship, a look of astonishment on\nhis face. \"Blimey! So you lot made a space ship out of a house?\" he said\nto all of them.\"Impressed?\" asked Trixie, she and everyone else all holding their heads up proudly.The\ndoctor looked at her like she was crazy. \"Impressed?! It's a miracle\nthis thing is still in one piece! What were you thinking going into\nspace with this death trap?!\"They all glared at the Doctor in irritation.\"So where is Prince Blueblood?\" asked the Doctor, seemingly oblivious to their annoyance. \"I don't see him anywhere?\"Trixie flinched at that question.\"Yeah, where the heck is\nBlueblood?\" asked Jet Set, him and everyone else remembering that their\nPrince friend had been missing since before the battle. \"We just fought\na whole battle, and didn't see him ONCE!\"\"I\nswear,\" said Upper Crust angrily. \"If I find out he was hiding in his\nroom cowering this whole time, or something like that, I'm going to kill\nhim!\"\"Actually...\" Trixie spoke up,\nscratching the back of her head with her hoof awkwardly. She decided she\nmight as well tell them now. \"...Blueblood took the escape pod to go into\nthe plot hole.\"They all stared perplexedly at Trixie.\"I'm sorry, what?\" said the Doctor after several seconds.Trixie\ncontinued. \"Before the attack, Blueblood took the escape pod and flew\noff to go into the plot hole because he had a vision telling him there\nmight be a way to stop the plot hole from destroying the universe inside\nit.\"Again, they all stared at Trixie.\"You're joking right?\" asked Gilda.She shook her head, and they all gaped at Trixie in shock.\"So\nyou're telling us Blueblood is inside that plot hole right now?\"\nexclaimed Flam, pointing at the image on the viewscreen of the giant\nswirling vortex of in the distance in space.She nodded. \"Yes... er,r well, Trixie hopes so. And she also hopes he's alive.\"Before anything could be said any further about that, Sunset Shimmer suddenly spoke up over everyone.\"Hey,\neveryone!?\" Sunset shouted to them. She was still sitting at her\ncomputer station, staring at her screen. They all looked over at her,\nand she continued. \"I'm detecting a dangerous build up of energy from\nwithin the Ascendency. \"In a blink\nof an eye, the Doctor leaped over to her side and looked over her\nshoulder at the screen. \"She's right. Their magic power core is going\ncritical! It's gonna explode, and the blast will be big enough to take\nout both it, and the Heart Star with it.\" Then a grave expression appeared on his face. \"And there's still life form readings onboard both of them.\"They all looked at each other, each of them considering the same question in their heads.\"Should we help them?\" asked Hoops, shrugging his hooves into the air.Queen Entomala stuck up her nose. \"I say let Celestia die!\" she said coldly.The\nDoctor glared at the changeling angrily. \"That's not my way!\" he said\nto her. \"Besides, there's more ponies over there then just Celestia!\"\"It would be the right thing to do,\" said Flim, and his brother nodded in agreement beside him.\"Yeah,\nyou're right,\" Trixie said, knowing it was true. At the moment, the\nidea of helping her enemies infuriated her, but she knew it would be\nwrong to not try to save all those ponies from dying. She sighed. \"Darn\nit, why am I such a nice pony? Alright, lets go rescue-\"Before Trixie could finish her sentence, the Ascendency\nsuddenly exploded with a blinding light, the blast taking a huge chunk\nout of the Heart Star with it, sending smoldering debris and shrapnel\nhurtling off into space in all directions. The force of the Ascendency\nexploding caused a chain reaction of explosions all throughout the\nHeart Star. The massive hull of the heart shaped space station began to\ncrack and split neatly in two as a series of explosions ran down the\nmiddle, exposing dozens of decks and debris into space, and making it\nresemble, ironically, a broken heart.Several\nseconds later, after a few more smaller explosions flashed from within\nthe Heart Star, the giant space station blew apart in one final blinding\nexplosion, which lit up the viewscreen with white light. When it\ncleared, there was nothing left of the Heart Star but a massive cloud of\ntiny, smoldering debris and shrapnel, whirling through space in all\ndirections.They all just stared at the\nimage of the field of debris on the viewscreen for a long moment,\nmortified. All those ponies... dead. Rarity, Shining Armor, Princess\nCelestia. They were all dead.\"Oh,\" Trixie\nsaid awkwardly, finally breaking the eerie silence. \"Oh well. Nothing\nwe can do for them now.\" She immediately felt a twinge of guilt inside\nher for not wanting to help them earlier.At\nleast it was over now. All they needed to do now was either wait for\nBlueblood, presuming he was still alive, or try to get him back\nthemselves and figure out what to do about the plot hole. Fortunately,\nthey didn't have to hurry because they had plenty of time to do all\nthat.Suddenly, Hoops spoke up, and\npointed at the viewscreen with his hoof, fear and uncertainty in his\nvoice. \"Guys... something weird is going on with the plot hole!\" ","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/791828-to-boldly-hoof-it-ch-17-the-battle-part-2.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/791838-to-boldly-hoof-it-ch-19-mistakes-mistakes-everywhere.json"}